Representatives From Europe’s Tin Pot Republics Meet a Despot from the Americas in Ankara

NATO starts with Trump demanding Greenland again

Can they get worse? Trump arrived to his own fanfare at the NATO summit in Ankara and informed everyone Greenland should belong to the U.S. + Trump Towers, and Europe did not deserve (U.S. = his) support, because they did not follow Trump on Iran, and had too much immigration.

His absurdities have actually meant that a full 45% of American people believe it’s European allies would not come to it’s aid should it be necessary, a real slap in the face of countries that all answered American call for help and solidarity after 9/11 — or almost all: France was not convinced by the invasion of Iraq.

Trump needed back-up, and should have called in Infantino, the president of FIFA. He could have arranged things and had Denmark suspended from future football tournaments unless they gave away Greenland. The fact that Infantino is from Brig, in Switzerland, where many of the Swiss Guards that protect the pope are from pretty much sums it up: there are really, sincerely none more corrupt than the Swiss, who make a mockery of all corruption indexes by mysteriously not appearing on them, a clever feat considering Switzerland was built-on, and runs on corrupt practices. As Swiss politician and whistleblower Jean Ziegler says; Switzerland washes whiter than white.

But Trump has other enemies to sort out, and as he flew towards Ankara, he launched his first salvo, rounding on Meloni, the Italian prime minister who would in normal times among those with normal brains be an ally, an impossible feat considering the state of mind of the American deal-maker these days.

Trump’s salvo

Among Europeans, Bulgaria stands out, having announced it would block measures against the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, Patriach Kirill, allegedly because of support the country received in the nineteenth century against the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

Tusk of Poland, the country that invented historical grievances; the more the merrier in order to swallow in self-pity, is busy. Yet again he warned Polish politicians, as he does every day now, to not play with fire. He told them support for Ukraine has been a political and national consensus. That Ukraine’s defense is not charity. For countries on Russia’s border, it is security, he said. Helping Ukraine is not escalation. It is common sense. Is he still speaking on deaf ears? He is certainly speaking to whatever the heads of morons possess in-between.

Poland cannot possibly come near Ukraine’s ability in air defence, and Poland is next in line. What is wrong with them, with their constant anti-Ukrainisms?

If NATO countries displayed the same mettle and attitude of this brave Ukrainian 3 year old, we might take NATO a little more seriously.

[embed]Good little lad

Just in case anyone thinks a few bombs should not cause too much alarm, let’s have a look at a view of the area from above after the latest bombing.

Vyshneve, just outside Kyiv

Of course NATO is not just an organisation built around expressing concern and trying to appease Trump while not hand him Greenland. As usual lots of different papers were signed, containing all kinds of groups and plans, though some countries got carried away and even signed the menus: I hope that does not mean Kyiv will take delivery of thousands of five course meals.

So, in this spirit nine EU countries co-signed a new letter before lunch.

1. Germany
2. Netherlands
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. Lithuania
6. Estonia
7. Latvia
8. Denmark
9. Poland

In the letter to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius, the nine countries urged the EU to move quickly and allow Ukraine to use the defense portion of its €90 billion loan package to purchase non-European military equipment—including U.S.-made Patriot air-defense missiles, rather than waiting for additional market studies or procurement reviews. They argued that Ukraine’s urgent air-defense needs require immediate flexibility in the loan’s spending rules. Truer words have not been spoken.

Added to this, a group of five European countries are also working together on a new defense financing mechanism to support Ukraine and strengthen European defense, whatever that might mean.

1. United Kingdom
2. France
3. Germany
4. Italy
5. Poland

These five countries—often called the E5, have been discussing ways to improve defense financing and procurement, including mechanisms that would make it easier to raise money for military production and support for Ukraine. Keep discussing.

A new International Defense, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) was also announced. That initiative has nine founding members:

• Canada
• Albania
• Belgium
• Greece
• Latvia
• Luxembourg
• Romania
• Türkiye
• Ukraine

The DSRB is intended to provide low-cost financing and loan guarantees for defense projects, including increasing defense industrial capacity that can benefit Ukraine and allied countries.

Ukraine meanwhile signed drone cooperation deals with Estonia, Netherlands and Denmark, meaning that the 3 countries get to tap into Ukrainian technology and systems.

The agreements are part of Ukraine’s broader push to expand drone technology cooperation with partners in Europe and beyond, as it shares its war-tested experience in unmanned systems. Under the deals, Kyiv agreed to develop joint production with the three NATO partners, as well as broader defense cooperation. Yep, that’s the official statement paraphrased. Again, wise countries tapping into Ukrainian expertise.

The gang pose for a photo op in Ankara — note Macron with customary cool sunglasses + wife in front row centre, and Keir Starmer shunted to the farside, left. Bye bye mate

Of course the first thing one notices is the complete absence of the U.S. in any group— to be expected. However, the usual suspects, of Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Czechia have disappeared over the horizon once more; only around when there’s cash being handed into their wide open palms.

Yes, quite a large number of other tin pot republics from Europe are also absent, as usual. When is NATO going to start taking on the skivers; those who contribute nothing and instead are just a drain on resources?

The question is more difficult to answer than it looks, as Trump has appointed himself grand master of NATO, and only he decides who, what, why, when and where in all things NATO, which includes everyone buying American and grabbing Greenland.

Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson stated russia is unwilling to negotiate but also unable to win against Ukraine. He noted everyone needed to be “extremely prepared” for a lot of different scenarios regarding russia.

[embed]*When the War Breaks Out (of Ukraine) *A few thoughts medium.com

The hidden big dark elephant in the room is Europe’s worry that a strong Ukraine, beating russia, will cause russia to turn towards another European country to pillage and destroy, a new twist, and one that stalks the corridors of NATO minds. Something to fret over I guess. Does this imply Ukraine should not take russia to the cleaners? Not quite: it should mean that NATO countries really must start taking defence seriously and not find ways to blame Ukraine for doing well.

Taking defence seriously means listening to their militaries: a huge step, considering in Britain they have not, and just issued a new defence plan that only reaches 2.7% of the budget, a matter which would be a whole lot less important if they had properly adapted the British Army to today’s warfare.

For example, what is the British Army going to do with 100 tanks exactly, except pay a whole lot for them. I am sick of politicians and their phallic talismans.

Britain might glance over their backs: russian hackers have compromised the email accounts of British officials, with access being sold for up to $60,000, The Telegraph reports.

The hackers exploited a vulnerability in over 80,000 firewalls and stole credentials from employees of the British Foreign Office, local authorities, and staff of diplomatic missions in Thailand and Mauritius. The cyberattack also affected the NHS (National Health Service), energy companies, and medicine suppliers.

Analysis of the code showed it was written in russian, and access to the hacked accounts is being sold by a user under the alias SantaAd. However, a spokes person for the British government carefully explained that in no circumstances were any direct evidence linking it to the Kremlin to be found.

At about the same time, on the border between Serbia and Hungary, a few russians have been detained for planning to sabotage a German defence plant that assists Ukraine, Bild reports.

The specific target of the saboteurs in fact is not yet known. Bild notes that there are several defense companies in Germany that produce weapons for Ukraine.

Serbian police arrested the russian agents in early June, amid evidence they planned attacks using explosives somewhere in Germany. Surely this must be the only russian sabotage group in Europe. They would not be anywhere else, carrying out any other activities, would they?

Considering the EU cannot agree to ban russians that have served in Ukraine from receiving visas, one imagined the likelihood of continued russian sabotage in Europe as quite high.

Cognitive warfare remains one of the ams of the russian war machine. With traditional media in decline, and trust in institutions at a low level, most encounter the news through feeds designed to prioritise engagement over accuracy. In that environment, you don’t need to convince the lazy and entitled of a lie as much as make them unsure of what might be true.

In a flurry of thought, NATO has recognised cognitive warfare as the sixth domain of military conflict, standing alongside land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. Unlike cyberattacks that target technical infrastructure, cognitive warfare targets the western human mind devoid of critical analysis, a far easier target.

The strategy combines traditional and emerging technologies to achieve psychological effects on an enemy population and its leadership, the NATO Chief Scientist's Report published in December 2025 reported.

Cognitive attack are the deliberate aim to reshape how the target audience thinks, perceives information, and makes decisions.

The deployment of digital networks, algorithms, and AI rapidly speeds up and expands the scope of manipulation. The sheer volume of information, and multiple areas where it accessible make countering the effects demanding.

Russia’s cognitive war is inherently genocidal, Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Military Development Directorate (GUR) noted.

While conventional kinetic warfare aims to destroy physical infrastructure and bodies, cognitive warfare aims to systematically erase national identity and historical reality.

Judging by the erratic beliefs and behaviours exhibited by certain European and American leaders, the strategy works not only on populations, including russia’s own one.

General Syrskyi

Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi stated that during June, unmanned aviation complexes performed more than 437 thousand combat missions. More than 200 thousand verified enemy targets were hit, and almost 28 thousand russian occupiers were hit with the help of unmanned systems. The ratio of hits was 1.6 to 1 in our favor, while in May it was 1.5 to 1. In ground-based robotic systems about 17 thousand tasks were carried out. For comparison, in May it was 12.5 thousand.

The main issue is defence of cities, and in that respect Ukraine needs more from its partners. Out in the deep, wide front, drone warfare takes on new dimensions monthly. Calling the zone of contact, or the killing zone a line or front is already a misnomer. FPV drones can reach far, and do. Should brave warriors even try to push the invaders back? How much can be carried out by drones? The russian enemy need to be flushed out, even when the bridgehead they have turns out to be a handful of badly-trained wounded scavengers. If no action is taken, these groups grow and start to represent a threat. Most of them do get wiped out by FPV drones, but not all.

Fighting is being carried out by extremely competent, professional Ukrainian fighters and drone operators. Nothing much distressed me more when far from the fighting when some civilians muse about warriors coming back and raping and killing, either after the war or during rare breaks. I have heard similar directly and indirectly from a few on the other side of Ukraine.

On the contrary. There is not one Ukrainian soldier I have met that wants nothing more than to survive, and live peacefully, and there has not been one incident of any troops going AWOL and committing any violence of any sort. How I hate ignorant, malicious gossip from those ignoring the war and spreading idiotic nonsense.

The kitchen story below comes from the lovely Alyona, second from right with her crew. She is a single mother, so if you’d like to donate anything to her, let me know and I’ll arrange things (she speaks English)

I remember in Spring 2022 we ate one potato day on the front. Nobody buckled. The best of Ukraine and some foreign lads and lassies stood their ground anyway. Things have come a long way since then.

During the last terrible, long winter, in a cold Kyiv without power and heating, people who lived in old blockhouses were considered lucky, with gas ovens in their kitchens, so they could cook and bake to make a little warmth.

So when they cooked potatoes in their homes for kitchens supplying the front, in industrial quantity, they put the potatoes into sacks, and into their beds while they cooled for peeling, and in this way for a while they were able to stay warm.

I have sadly discovered a little more about Fatima: since russia’s full-scale war started sixth-year students studying medical programs across Ukraine have completed their master’s degree and passed the qualifying exams remotely. Fatima Guseynova and Nnani Adaobi Marian, who studied at the Kharkiv National Medical University, were among the recent graduates. Both were evacuated to Germany. Both came back for for their graduation ceremony on 30th June. Both were hit by a russian glide bomb that took their lives. Both were natives of Kharkiv Ukraine, Fatima originally from Azerbaijan, and Nnani from Nigeria.

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